Mental effects of segregation

Beech exposes the ingrained psychological impact of segregation. Although de jure segregation was abolished in Massachusetts, he feared eating in a white restaurant while vacationing there. Beech argues that segregation can only be overcome with more intelligence and more wealth.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Harvey E. Beech, September 25, 1996. Interview J-0075. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

ANITA FOYE:

Could you tell me about--?

HARVEY E. BEECH:

You have to make an A in con law, knowing that in Massachusetts they had
a civil rights state law. Eloise and I, my wife, went up to
Martha's Vineyard, to just relax a little bit. And we drove
our car all the way to Wood's Hole, Massachusetts, where you
wait for the boat to go to Old Bluffs. We hadn't eaten
anything that day, and there was a little café near the dock.
And this was in 1952. And I'm afraid to go and ask for a
sandwich in a White restaurant, knowing that Massachusetts had a civil
rights act already. This was before '54. I knew they had it,
but I'm afraid mentally to go in and be embarrassed. We
didn't go in. We waited, we got on the boat, went over to Old
Bluffs, and we had our first meal. I said that to say this: segregation
is harmful, any way you cut it, even the separate part of it is bad. But
the worst thing about segregation, you can't have segregation
without discrimination. You can't have it. And it, and if I
had gone through all I'd gone through, made an A in con law
at Carolina, and I'm afraid to ask for a sandwich in a White
restaurant in Massachusetts, what about the fellow who's
never had the opportunity that I have had? So it's a mental
thing. And that's the dangers of, that's the
culprit about segregation. The separateness, that's the
stuff. It boggles the mind of a child. And the child doesn't
know why. That's why I talked with the Lord about it a long
time. It's not right, it's not right. I
can see it unfolding itself now. But we still got
it here. The only way I know how to overcome it is, personally, is to be
smarter and richer. That's the only way. And even after
achieving that, you look back, you say, well, I'd rather be
by myself. Yes, do your own thing. That's what I tried to
do.